Kazakhstan promises to allow public protests, just not yet
Sep 26th 2019ALMATYKAZAKHSTAN’S NEW president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has tried to sound like a refreshing change after decades of autocracy. Early this month, in his first state-of-the-nation speech, he said his “listening state” would show greater tolerance of dissent. Days earlier, citizens had witnessed the astonishing sight of pro-democracy marches proceeding without arrests. But other protests, including a recent spate targeting the country’s giant neighbour and benefactor, China, have elicited a very different response. In Kazakhstan old political habits die hard.The protesters want an end to what they regard as Chinese economic domination of their country. The demonstrations, the most recent of which took place on September 21st in the country’s two biggest cities, Almaty and Nur-Sultan, as well as several other towns, have involved only a few hundred people. But relations with China, with which Kazakhstan shares a 1,800-km border, are highly sensitive. Kazakhstan has benefited enormously from China’s global infrastructure-building scheme, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). There are 55 Chinese projects under way in the country, worth $27.5bn. Kazakhstan’s government takes great pride in this. It likes to describe the country as the “buckle” of BRI’s belt.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address